Display Featured Items First

• 3mounika

• February 17, 2018 at 6:48 pm

Hi,

I have created a event post type and added custom fields start and end date and i have created custom archive page for it and I am displaying events orderby start date

<?php

// query events order
$posts = get_posts(array(
	'posts_per_page'	=> -1,
	'post_type'			=> 'event',
	'order'				=> 'ASC',
	'orderby'			=> 'meta_value',
	'meta_key'			=> 'start_date',
	'meta_type'			=> 'DATETIME'
));

if( $posts ): ?>

	<h2>All Events</h2>
	<ul id="events">
		<?php foreach( $posts as $p ): ?>
			<li>
				<strong><?php echo $p->post_title; ?></strong>: <?php the_field('start_date', $p->ID); ?> -  <?php the_field('end_date', $p->ID); ?>
			</li>	
		<?php endforeach; ?>
	</ul>

<?php endif; ?>

And I have created a Featured custom field True/False Now I want to show featured events first at the same time orderby start date

Please help on this.

• John Huebner

• February 19, 2018 at 3:07 am

In order to do this you need to use meta_query instead of meta_key and meta_type.

For more information about ordering by a custom field see the last code example in the order by section here https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Order_.26_Orderby_Parameters and this page https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/08/29/a-more-powerful-order-by-in-wordpress-4-0/

• 3mounika

• February 23, 2018 at 10:46 pm

Hi,

I am confused between the keys and values.

Would you give some example code to achieve this.

Thanks.

• John Huebner

• February 26, 2018 at 2:53 am

the query arguments would look something like this

$args = array(
  'posts_per_page'  => -1,
  'post_type'      => 'event',
  'meta_query' => array(
    'date_clause' => array(
      'key' => 'start_date',
      'compare' => 'EXISTS'
    ),
    'feature_clause' => array(
      'key' => 'featured', // or whatever your t/f field name is
      'compare' => 'EXISTS'
    )
  ),
  'orderby' => array(
    'feature_clause' => 'DESC',
    'date_clause' => 'ASC'
  )
);

• 3mounika

• February 27, 2018 at 12:42 pm

<?php
			// query events order
			$posts = get_posts(array(
				'posts_per_page'	=> -1,
				'post_type'			=> 'event',
				'meta_query'		=> array(
					'date_clause'		=> array(
						'key'				=> 'start_date',
						'compare'			=> 'EXISTS'
					),
					'feature_clause'	=> array(
						'key'				=> 'featured',
						'compare'			=> 'EXISTS'
					)
				),
				'orderby'			=> array(
					'feature_clause'	=> 'DESC',
					'date_clause'		=> 'ASC'
				)
			));

			if( $posts ): ?>
				<div class="events-list">
					<?php foreach( $posts as $p ): ?>
						<div><h2><a href="<?php echo get_permalink( $p->ID ); ?>"><?php echo $p->post_title; ?></a></h2></div>
						<div><?php the_field('start_date', $p->ID); ?></div>
						<div><?php the_field('end_date', $p->ID); ?></div>
					<?php endforeach; ?>
				</div>
			<?php endif; ?>

I have write the code like this and it’s working (is it correct?)

And Thank you very much.

• 3mounika

• February 28, 2018 at 12:04 am

Hi I have tried this for active events, featured is coming first ok but the date orderby is not working (after featured events latest posted events coming next)

// find date time now
				$date_now = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');

				// query events
				$posts = get_posts(array(
					'posts_per_page'	=> -1,
					'post_type'			=> 'event',
					'meta_query' 		=> array(
						'date_clause'	=> array(
						'relation' 			=> 'AND',
							array(
								'key'			=> 'start_date',
								'compare'		=> '<=',
								'value'			=> $date_now,
								'type'			=> 'DATETIME'
							),
							array(
								'key'			=> 'end_date',
								'compare'		=> '>=',
								'value'			=> $date_now,
								'type'			=> 'DATETIME'
							)
						),
						'feature_clause'	=> array(
						'key'				=> 'featured',
						'compare'			=> 'EXISTS'
						)
					),
					'orderby'			=> array(
					'feature_clause'	=> 'DESC',
					'date_clause'		=> 'ASC'
					)
				)); 

Please help on this (I want to show featured events first next active events based on end date first)

Please help on this

• John Huebner

• March 1, 2018 at 6:36 am

You cannot put a nested query inside of the “clause” date query. I’m not sure how you can do this, or even if it’s possible.

• 3mounika

• March 3, 2018 at 4:40 pm

Is there any solution for this? Any help.

• John Huebner

• March 5, 2018 at 11:34 pm

You need to have two different meta queries for the date. One like you have to get the current or active events, this query will not have a “clause”. The second query will be the “EXISTS” query I posted earlier.

Also, you need to check the format of the data that ACF stores. If this is a “Date” field, ACF may not be storing in a standard “Date” format and type' => 'DATETIME' is probably the wrong type to use.

• 3mounika

• March 6, 2018 at 1:01 pm

Thanks

• Jilli

• November 29, 2021 at 10:14 pm

You should use php’s usort. The code below:

1. creates a function that grabs the featured post’s ID (set in a custom field assigned to the posts page)
2. checks posts in the query and compares two at a time, moving $post_a to the front if its ID matches the featured post ID.

usort( $wp_query->posts, function ( $post_a, $post_b ) {
    
    $featured = get_field('featured_post', $page)[0];

    $a = $post_a->ID == $featured;
    $b = $post_b->ID == $featured;

    if ( !$a && !$b ) { // both false
        return 0;
    }
    return ( $a ) ? - 1 : 1;
} );